CINEMA NEWS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 304, 5 October 1946, Page 8

CINEMA NEWS

[(B, “Spotlight”)]

FILMS REALIZES DREAMS OF . ITS FOUR STARS

Warner Bros,’ “The Hard Way” is a dream-come-true picture of four stars. They do the things they always wanted to do but never have done before the camera. Ida Lupino, who has looked like Cinderella in the fireplace in all her recent pictures, has 28 costume changes. Joan Leslie, still regarded as a schoolgirl (which she is), has a grown-up role and two marriages. Jack Carson, a comedian, Avill play a straight dramatic role and will achieve the height of all funny-men’s ambitions —a death scene. ' And Dennis Morgan will sing. Morgan, who has been angling to sing in a featurelength show since he hit Hollywood, has always been cast as a non-musical leading man. <

FAVOURITES The Associated Press, checking the Japanese taste in American films shown since March 1 in Japanese theatres* has come up with this list: “Tall In The Saddle” Avas the most popular. Others in order of their popularity were: “Once Upon A Time,” •‘Lost Angel,” “Enter Arsene Lupin,” “The Keys of the Kingdom,” “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay,” “Watch on the Rhine,” “The Gold Rush,” “Madame Curie,” “His Butler’s Sister,” and “Abe Lincoln In Illinois.”

JUST ONE BED AFTER ANOTHER While it’s no bed of roses, claims young Dean StockAvell, a screen actor’s life has its full quota of springs, mattresses and pillows. Dean, the boy hero of “The Green Years,” rose early recently to begin his first day’s Avork in “The Arnelo Affair” at M-G-M.' He doffed his pyjamas, donned his clothes and hurried to the studio. There, he donned another pair of pyjamas and promptly climbed into bed! He spent the entire day there, too, for scenes* in the picture. The child actor’s mother is still wondering Avhy Dean Avas so perturbed when, after he arrived home, she remarked, “I know you’ve had a hard day, so I think you’d better go to bed extra early! ”

HAREM FACTS UNEARTHED After Darryl F. Zanuck had pur- ■ chased the screen rights to Margaret Landon’s “Anna and the King of Siam,” 20th Century-Fox studio launched forth on one of the strangest tasks ever to confront Hollywood’s film makers. It had to find a technical advisor who had actually been inside King Mongkut’s harem in Siam. Many months went by before it Ayas finally discovered that only two men had ever set foot inside Bangkok’s City of Women, and the whereabouts of these two men Avere unknoAvn. One of j the men was an American electrician who, under heavy and constant guard, had been permitted inside to install the lighting equipment. The other was a balloon ascensionist v.ho had bailed out and unintentiouuily landed in the harem. Since this Avas an unavoidable accident, the usual death sentence was waived in his case and he Avas permitted to remain alive. Twentieth Century-Fox was finally successful in locating a technical ad--1 visor who had talked Avith both the electrician and ascensionist and he was immediately signed to instruct Linda Darnell how to play King Mongkutls wife in the picture. The advisor was Philip A. Huffman, Avho for 18 years had been editor and publisher of two daily newspapers in Bangkok, Siam.

SABU RETURNS TO THE SCREEN At 6.15 p.m. on Wednesday, May S, a slim, dark young man stepped quietly from the Pan-American Clipper at Hiirh Airport, A brilliant red turban and red and yellow tie gave' a touch of Oriental magnificence to his dark navy 'suit. In a couple of minutes the autograph-hunters had pounced. Sabu, the 22-year-old Indian screen star, was returning to England for the first time since 1940 to star in the new Powell"Pressburger production of Rumer Godden- “Black Narcissus.’’ He is to play the part of the young General Dilip Rai, heir t<s an Indian' ruler in the Himalayas.

FAMOU SAUTHORESS AT DENHAM Daphne du Maurier paid a surprise visit to Denham tudios recently. The film of her book, “Hungry Hill,” is in progress, and William Sistrom the producer, and Brian Desmond Hurst, the director, showed her everything there was to see, and in particular the “rushes” of the great fire at the copper mine. Miss du Maurier had a long talk to Margaret Lockwood, who, as the lovely Fanny Rosa, is the star of the picture. Daphne du Maurier has already had several of her works adapted for the screen, the best known to date being “Rebecca” and “Frenhman’s Creek,” but the Two Cities production of “Hungry Hill” will certainly stand high in the annals of British film history and prove once again that the talents of this clever authoress are more than appropriate to the screen.

“ NATIONAL VELVET” GIRL Elizabeth Taylor is about to be launched on her own as a screen star. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announces that the 14-year-old beauty has been chosen for the leading role in a new film, “The Spindle Age’'’; the story of which concerns a girl on the threshold of adolescence who longs for two things—allure and a beau. Elizabeth s first picture was “National Velvet,/’ with Mickey Rooney.

NOT DUMB—BUT DEAF A lot of people recall, in the days of silent films, the excited patron who would yell a warning to the hero as the villain crept up behind him. ~ This type of patron still persisted for a short time after talkies arrived, and one- such customer, rather disgruntled that his warning shout had not made the hero turn around in time, told his friend, “They can make them talk alright these days, but they’re still as deaf as a post!